Excerpt from Sugar Canes and Their Products: Culture and Manufacture
There is another point worthy of study. It is what might vul garly be termed the path of empire. The development of trade centers, like centers of population, is determined by definite causes. So far we have seen one sugar-mart grow to the exclusion of others. New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia. And Boston have each en joyed special advantages, but New York has far outstripped all. Now, it is reasonable to expect one or more additional trade-centers to rise into prominence with the growth of such a large country. If raw-sugars continue to be imported, San Francisco has the most promising future. If domestic cultivation of sugar yielding plants is destined to supply a fair portion of our wants, no city is better located to secure a leading position than St. Louis. Even her neighbors and rivals in other branches of trade will concede that this conclusion is well founded.
But, turning from what may seem a side-path, the question of the ability of the world to dispose of the increasing product of the cane and beet is one that is often seriously considered and has given rise to much doubt and discussion. The truth is. That the world’s consumption of sugar is continually increasing. Local checks occur when prices reach a prohibitory figure, but when prices fall again the lost ground is regained. The consumption in Great Britain per head of population nearly doubled from 1855 to (875. Other countries show even larger gains. Sugar has long ago disappeared from the class of luxuries and become a staple arti cle. It has been put to an ever-increasing variety of uses; the preserving and canning trade have made the summer months the best market season. In great Britain, when prices are very low, sugar is used in large quantities for brewing, and it is stated that the poorer qualities are used to a considerable extent for feeding stock. It is difficult to say that a limit to consumption has yet been reached. If sugars should be cheapened by any means one third or one half of their cost, new outlets, not now considered or even known, might market a much larger production than the world has ever seen.
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